Evaluate on of the Underlined English Vocabulary Items in the "English for New. Ethiopia" Series for Grades 9 To 12
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Date
1984-06
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
This study is a critical evaluation of the vocabulary
items found in the English for New Ethiopia (ENE) series
that is used as text-books for teaching English in all
Ethiopian senior High Schools. Evaluation is required
mainly t o see how relevant the selected vocabulary is to
the students at this l evel.
This paper then evaluates (a) the size of vocabulary
items selected; (b) the frequency level of the vocabulary
items; (c) the gradati on and interaction of the items, and
(d) the codability of the selected words, which in particular
d eals with the content-concept of the vocabulary items in
relation to the standard of the students .•
The method of comparing and contrasting is applied to
evaluate the relevance of the items. And the major material
used for comparing the target vocabulary with the common
Standard English Vocabulary is Thorndike and Lorge ' s standard
frequency-list which was produced in 1944. Besides, other
relevant references are also made use of as they are needed.
Finally the result of the investigation has revealed that
there are 1190 vocabulary items altogether, including expressional
phrases, in the ENE series for grades 9 to 12. This
indicates the size of the vocabulary to be too small for the
four year study. And only 49.41% of this total sum is found
to have more than 20 times frequency of occurrence per million words in the use of Standard English. This means that the
greater part of the selected items is difficult to learn.
On the other hand gradation of the items i s found to
take uneven shape in some cases. For instance, more words
are put in the lower grade ENE seri es than are found in the
upper grade books .
It was also discovered in this study that about 14%
of the total sum of the target vocabulary items is composed
of technical terms, most of them very difficult to learn
for they are almost impractical for the daily life of the
students.
Generally, the result of this study has indicated '
certain short-comings of the target vocabttlaT,y. And, hence
certain constructive recommendations are given in the conclusion
so that they might contribute to the reshaping of
the vocabulary in such a way that it facilitates the learning
of English as a second language in the Ethiopian senior
High Schools.
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Evaluate on of the Underlined English Vocabulary Items